Gov. Doug Burgum issued executive orders on Monday requiring people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus and those who reside with someone who has tested positive to self-quarantine for two weeks.

Burgum also banned visits to people living in nursing homes or long-term care facilities as a precaution to protect vulnerable people living there. He said exceptions would be made for end of life facilities.

The state health department had long recommended both measures but now they have the force of law.

People who violate the order could be charged with a Class B misdemeanor.

Burgum had previously ordered that people who are traveling to North Dakota from out of state also go into quarantine for two weeks as a precaution.

A fourth person, a man in his 70s from Emmons County, has now died of the new coronavirus, Burgum announced during his daily briefing on Monday.

As of Sunday, there were 225 people who had tested positive for the coronavirus. Thirty-two people who tested positive had required hospitalization; 19 remain hospitalized. Another 74 are considered to have recovered.

Burgum said he will not issue an executive order requiring people to stay at home, as most other states have done. He said North Dakota has tested a greater percentage of its population for the new coronavirus per 1,000 people than the vast majority of other states and has a low number of positives. The state has more than enough available medical capacity to deal with the anticipated number of coronavirus patients who will require hospitalization, he said. Burgum said he will do what is necessary to protect the state and thus far a stay at home order is not necessary.

Burgum said drive-through, voluntary testing for coronavirus conducted this weekend in Amidon in Slope County and in Gladstone, both rural areas that have nearly zero cases of coronavirus, was a success. The information gathered will give the state good baseline information to use in future planning. All the results will be reported by Wednesday.

Burgum said he would like to see similar testing conducted on the Fort Berthold reservation and Mountrail County, which is emerging as a mini hot spot for the virus in the state, with 19 cases reported as of Sunday. Such testing would be conducted with the approval of the tribal chairman and the tribe. Stark County is another emerging hot spot.

The testing in Amidon and Gladstone may be used to help sooner identify people who test positive for the coronavirus but are asymptomatic. People who have coronavirus but are asymptomatic might be spreading the virus in the community unknowingly. Anyone who tested positive but reported feeling no symptoms during the weekend drive-through testing would also be required to go into quarantine for two weeks.